Novel Prologue

PROLOGUE

‘There’s another thing that never gets old – pay day!’

His blonder-than-blond hair shone brightly in the sun as he laughed loudly at his own joke, flashing a broad white smile at the driver. Lolling his arm out of the window of the convertible, he took a final backward glance at a retreating LA, relaxed back into his seat and triumphed in the warmth of the Californian sun.

After a pause, a soft British accent answered back slowly and with less enthusiasm,
‘I don’t doubt it’ll be big money this time, Chris . . . but still I worry. We will have to change up next time. We have to.’

‘Oh for crap’s sake, Richard! Ada Zsabo was fifty years ago! Relax, man!’ The smile fell from his lips and he shook his head in half-annoyance. ‘Just chill the hell out. The set-up is absolutely perfect this time and you know it.’ He held up three fingers and counted them off one by one. ‘Our man’s in place at the auction. We’ll have our list by tonight. Tomorrow, we’ll have a shitload of cash. It’s as simple as that.’

Richard seemed to untense in his seat at the reassurance and he nodded reluctantly. ‘It’s just . . . you know I hate it when we stick our head over the parapet like this. Too many people would kill for a piece of this. But,’ a grin beginning to creep across his face, ‘it’s a great plan, and none of the bidders will risk biting the hand that feeds them, right?’

Chris reached across and squeezed his shoulder. ‘Right. I’ve vetted all of the most likely, remember? I promise: today, we’re semi-visible, tomorrow afternoon, we’ll be gone, gone in a puff of smoke gone! They can’t touch us, old friend. We’ll always be too quick and too smart.’

He smiled broadly again, putting his feet up on the dashboard and humming. But inside: Oh Christ, Richard, are you being deliberately naive? Have you really learnt nothing after so many, many years of doing this? Of course one of the bidders could screw us over. Hell, all of them could. Not to mention everyone else we've pissed off after all this time. We just have to hope there’re enough layers within layers to keep us safe!